Republican candidate Tricia Stall was always going to get support from the GOP - the big question was how much?
Stall's no-tax stance certainly fits well into the House of Delegates (can't you see her and Del. Tom Gear sharing a desk and taking turns saying "No"?) but her opinions don't mesh as well with GOP leaders in the Senate.
I don't think anyone was expecting Stall to be Sen. John Chichester's replacement in the Gang of Five, especially after Stall was a no-tax supporter of Paul Jost's unsuccessful campaign to knock Sen. Tommy Norment out of his seat.
That race was expensive, brutal and personal - and while Stall wasn't a staffer on the Jost campaign or anything - she was certainly aligned with him and his no-tax stance (we've got the pictures to prove it). Don't expect to spot Norment at a Stall campaign event - that would be too much humble pie for one man to eat.
But now Sen. Walter Stosch's political action committee - the Virginia Senate Republican Leadership Trust - has a full-time staffer on the ground working with the Stall campaign.
Those of you scoring at home probably remember that PAC got involved in the primary race, dropping almost $40,000 worth of flyers and commercials on the Peninsula for ousted Sen. Marty Williams.
The very same PAC paid for some pretty grim and ominous flyers that bashed Stall for her stance on public education, saying that she wanted to completely shut down Peninsula public schools - a position Stall has repeatedly refuted.
The GOP desire to retain the majority was always going to mend fences in this race, but one staffer on the ground doesn't guarantee that the Senate PAC is behind Stall for the long haul. As Christopher Newport University Prof. Quentin Kidd noted a couple of months ago, there are close races in south Hampton Roads and Fairfax and a limited amount of cash, so some candidates might get cut loose.
on staffer, hmm, not much help there. anyone know where the campaign hq is?
Posted by: lindy | Thursday, September 06, 2007 at 09:17 AM